WHLK - The Lake

[dannykewl]

I was just scanning my little Insignia portable HD radio, like I do maybe once a week to see that's new - and the RDS for 106.5 HD1 and 2 is now displaying WHLK. I'm trying to listen for actual call letters on the air, but I haven't heard any yet, and since it;s past 3 am, I'm not staying up for it, as I haven't caught the top of the hour ID.

I just noticed something as I left the HD radio going in the other room while I have my living room stereo on, the HD1 signal is like a split second behind the analog signal.

 

[dannykewl]

DISREGARD this thread: Anyway, I don't hear much of a difference between WMVX The Lake and WHLK the Lake music wise. I just found out about the call letter change, and posted about it, then found out it's old news since 1/17 according to Wikipedia, but I can't delete the post now. I don't recall anyone mentioning it here, and the station sure don't announce their call letters.

 

[74WIXYGrad]

In the old days, the owner of WHK would have contested that change of calls as being too close to their own.

 

[Rusty Muck]

In the old days, the owner of WHK would have contested that change of calls as being too close to their own.

When WWWE reverted to WTAM in 1996, it was more coincidence that their heritage calls were available. WZAM (which was too close to WZAK) and WUAM (which was too close to WUAB) were also considered, and ultimately rejected.

Secret (which owned 1100 at the time) simply re-branded the station as "AM 1100" earlier in the year, so they desired an "AM" call sign. Choosing WTAM was an accidental best-case scenario.

Considering that CC chose WHLK for 106.5, I'm surprised the station wasn't branded "106.5 The HULK!"

 

[dannykewl]

The Hulk, that's a good one. Seems that would fit their image of "we play anything (as long as it fits the list of hits that we feel are t*ts)". I supposed the image of The Lake is supposed to conjure up mental images of something vast?

When I seen WHLK on my radio's RDS, I thought the same thing, that's real close to the WHK calls. However, WHLO was known as WHKK up till the early 60's? Did whoever owned WHK at the time also own WHKK? Wasn't there more recently variations of the WHK calls on 98.1 and also on an AM station in Warren? However, didn't one or both of those have connections with WHK?

 

[Tim L]

The Hulk, that's a good one. Seems that would fit their image of "we play anything (as long as it fits the list of hits that we feel are t*ts)". I supposed the image of The Lake is supposed to conjure up mental images of something vast?

When I seen WHLK on my radio's RDS, I thought the same thing, that's real close to the WHK calls. However, WHLO was known as WHKK up till the early 60's? Did whoever owned WHK at the time also own WHKK? Wasn't there more recently variations of the WHK calls on 98.1 and also on an AM station in Warren? However, didn't one or both of those have connections with WHK?

WHK-1420 and WHKK-640 were co-owned, at one time by the Plain Dealer Publishing Company..


In sort of a convoluted history, what became WHKK was originally WJAY/WCLE-610 based in Cleveland as far back as at least the 1930's..WAIU, later WHKC, was a 640 daytimer In Columbus.  Because of an FCC rule limiting ownership to one AM per market, enacted in the mid 40's, 610 was moved to Columbus, and 640 to  Akron.
640 became WHLO in 1960, and WHKC-610 became WTVN-AM

I'll let Nathan Obral or someone else chime in with the later history..

 

[Capulet]

Hulk! Now thats a moniker! After all these years of cutesy names for radio stations, you would think someone would have grabbed that for a macho testosterone rock station.

 

[almaniac27]

Hulk! Now thats a moniker! After all these years of cutesy names for radio stations, you would think someone would have grabbed that for a macho testosterone rock station.

I doubt most stations have the money required to pay Marvel for the rights.

 

[Capulet]

Hulk! Now thats a moniker! After all these years of cutesy names for radio stations, you would think someone would have grabbed that for a macho testosterone rock station.

I doubt most stations have the money required to pay Marvel for the rights.

I imagined some sort of trademark infringement. Lots of "hulks" out there

 

[trefdawg]

Incredable thread

 

[Capulet]

Incredable thread

I thought so too! ( : )

 

[davideduardo]

WHK-1420 and WHKK-640 were co-owned, at one time by the Plain Dealer Publishing Company..

Forest City Publishing, Holden and Vail families.

 

[Rusty Muck]

The Hulk, that's a good one. Seems that would fit their image of "we play anything (as long as it fits the list of hits that we feel are t*ts)". I supposed the image of The Lake is supposed to conjure up mental images of something vast?

When I seen WHLK on my radio's RDS, I thought the same thing, that's real close to the WHK calls. However, WHLO was known as WHKK up till the early 60's? Did whoever owned WHK at the time also own WHKK? Wasn't there more recently variations of the WHK calls on 98.1 and also on an AM station in Warren? However, didn't one or both of those have connections with WHK?

WHK-1420 and WHKK-640 were co-owned, at one time by the Plain Dealer Publishing Company..


In sort of a convoluted history, what became WHKK was originally WJAY/WCLE-610 based in Cleveland as far back as at least the 1930's..WAIU, later WHKC, was a 640 daytimer In Columbus. Because of an FCC rule limiting ownership to one AM per market, enacted in the mid 40's, 610 was moved to Columbus, and 640 to Akron.
640 became WHLO in 1960, and WHKC-610 became WTVN-AM

I'll let Nathan Obral or someone else chime in with the later history..

Over the past decade, Salem's been rather bizarre in their handling of the WHK callsign.

Back when Salem acquired the station in 1997, the signal was soon simulcast on the former WTOF/98.1 as WHK-FM. Which was the case until the 2001 frequency/format/call letter swap that saw WHK move to 1220 and WHK-FM to 95.5, soon to become WFHM "The Fish."

Except it wasn't that easy. Salem was overprotective of the three-letter WHK callsign, so on Feb. 26, 2001, the calls moved to WCCD/1000, while 1420-AM became WHKK until the swap took place that July 3. After July 3, 1220-AM technically became WHKC, with the WHK calls moving from 1000 to 1220 less than a month later (and reverting to WCCD). At the same time, WHK-FM/95.5 became WFHM, taking the calls temporarily parked on 1440-AM Warren, which then became WHKW - for WHK in Warren, naturally.

After Salem re-acquired the 1420 frequency, what was branded as "News/Talk WHK" (inheriting a format that originated on WCCD; 1220 is the truthful continuation of the original WHK) remained legally known as WRMR until March 2005, when it regained the WHK calls. 1220 then gained the WHKW calls, while 1440 became WHKZ (for three days beforehand, 1220 was temporarily WHKZ and 1440 remained WHKW).

It should be noted that the WHKC calls now reside on the 91.5 frequency in Columbus, Ohio, whose calls denote the owner (and widower of the station's founder), Holly K. Case.

 

[Rusty Muck]

WHK-1420 and WHKK-640 were co-owned, at one time by the Plain Dealer Publishing Company..

Forest City Publishing, Holden and Vail families.

They also operated under the United Broadcasting banner... not to be confused with the Richard Eaton-headed United Broadcasting that owned WJMO/1490 and WCUY-WLYT-WRQC/92.3 throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s...

Interestingly, Forest City/United never attempted to network WHK, WHKK or WHKC, like what Crosley did with WLW and the WLW TV group. Possibly it's because WHK was not a 50kW superstation like WLW, and Forest City/United didn't have a TV station in their portfolio (WHKC didn't become WTVN until after being sold to the owners of WTVN-TV/6, now WSYX... I presume it was Taft).

 

[Capulet]

and here I thought HK in WHK stood for Happy Karma, later to be co-opted by Mel.
Wow...was I off !

Here's how I heard it. You see when the Beatles were assembling the cover photo materials for this record they did in 1967, John said," We need some Good Karma in here!" Paul said, " Hey mate, how about that Karma station in Cleveland....W ..something...K " ..you know...with the
" good guy" DJs? We have that doll from the tour.. How about that?" John said " Let me ask Yoko " ,and the rest was history!

 

[Rusty Muck]

and here I thought HK in WHK stood for Happy Karma, later to be co-opted by Mel.
Wow...was I off !

Here's how I heard it. You see when the Beatles were assembling the cover photo materials for this record they did in 1967, John said," We need some Good Karma in here!" Paul said, " Hey mate, how about that Karma station in Cleveland....W ..something...K " ..you know...with the
" good guy" DJs? We have that doll from the tour.. How about that?" John said " Let me ask Yoko " ,and the rest was history!

It stood for the station's first vice president/GM, H. K. Carpenter. Salem tweaked it in 1997 to mean "The Word of His Kingdom."

 

[Capulet]

I heard too that it was going to go all sports with Harry Karey as the station voice...........
so they had the HK stand for Holy Kow ! ( The C was taken by a station in Idaho.)

 

[SonoSational18]

In the old days, the owner of WHK would have contested that change of calls as being too close to their own.

When WWWE reverted to WTAM in 1996, it was more coincidence that their heritage calls were available. WZAM (which was too close to WZAK) and WUAM (which was too close to WUAB) were also considered, and ultimately rejected.

Secret (which owned 1100 at the time) simply re-branded the station as "AM 1100" earlier in the year, so they desired an "AM" call sign. Choosing WTAM was an accidental best-case scenario.

Considering that CC chose WHLK for 106.5, I'm surprised the station wasn't branded "106.5 The HULK!"

I was in on those call letter change discussions. WTAM was always the front-runner because of its historical significance. The real question was whether the call letters could be licensed from the Tampa LPTV station that had them. WUAM and WZAM were available, discussed, and rather quickly dismissed. WZAM sounded too "Captain Marvel" for a serious News/Talk station and WUAM was a bit of a tongue-twister. Going retro with call letters with a "KY" in it was also discussed but shelved.

The station could have taken the WJW call letters in 1985 when Lake Erie Radio acquired it. Unfortunately they didn't.

 

[SonoSational18]

.... and I always thought the WHK calls were left over from their country days.... standing for H(ic)K. :->

 

[Rusty Muck]

In the old days, the owner of WHK would have contested that change of calls as being too close to their own.

When WWWE reverted to WTAM in 1996, it was more coincidence that their heritage calls were available. WZAM (which was too close to WZAK) and WUAM (which was too close to WUAB) were also considered, and ultimately rejected.

Secret (which owned 1100 at the time) simply re-branded the station as "AM 1100" earlier in the year, so they desired an "AM" call sign. Choosing WTAM was an accidental best-case scenario.

Considering that CC chose WHLK for 106.5, I'm surprised the station wasn't branded "106.5 The HULK!"

I was in on those call letter change discussions. WTAM was always the front-runner because of its historical significance. The real question was whether the call letters could be licensed from the Tampa LPTV station that had them. WUAM and WZAM were available, discussed, and rather quickly dismissed. WZAM sounded too "Captain Marvel" for a serious News/Talk station and WUAM was a bit of a tongue-twister. Going retro with call letters with a "KY" in it was also discussed but shelved.

The station could have taken the WJW call letters in 1985 when Lake Erie Radio acquired it. Unfortunately they didn't.

I thought that Storer had the right to reclaim the WJW calls for TV8 as a condition of the original sale on AM/850 to Lake Erie in 1977. Regardless, it's sad those calls couldn't remain on the AM dial.